This month The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, also known as Proposition 47, was passed into law in California. This landmark proposition is the first in the country to reclassify select nonviolent and drug-related felonies as misdemeanors and redirect state resources to community mental health services and rehabilitation programs.

Prop. 47 supporters are confident that this new legislation will bring financial benefits to the state, increase public safety, and change the lives of countless individuals and families wrapped up in our overcrowded prison system. Opponents argue that reduced criminal sentencing and early releases will pose a threat to the public.

Regardless of these varying views, the reality remains that as of last week, almost 40,000 felony convictions are likely to be reduced to misdemeanors in the state of California, and about 7,000 inmates are now eligible to petition for immediate early release.

For the thousands of individuals set to re-enter our communities as a result of Prop. 47, a pre-release plan is crucial to their safe and successful reintegration. Tackling issues like housing, employment and mental health treatment from inside a prison”s walls is nearly impossible, especially for those individuals without financial means or family support on the outside. With proper support, however, the months and weeks leading up to release from prison can be used to piece together a plan, an outside network of support and other crucial resources that contribute to one”s ongoing success on the outside — and safer communities for us all.

There is a common misconception that the California Department of Corrections provides re-entry services such as case management, individual assistance and resource referrals to inmates before their re-entry. In reality, the department does not provide these types of comprehensive services to any inmate at any prison in the state, leaving returning citizens extremely vulnerable and at high risk upon release from custody.

According to The New York Times, Prop. 47 “injects common sense into a justice system gone off the tracks,” and the Los Angeles Times asserts that “Prop. 47 jolts the landscape of the California justice system.” The success of The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, however, does not lie within the written pages and hopeful ideologies of the proposition but in its successful implementation and a continued analysis of the holes in our current systems of incarceration and citizen reintegration.

To ensure that Prop. 47 lives up to the high expectations of its many passionate supporters, our communities will need to invest in programs that ensure safe and effective citizen re-entry, support that begins inside prison walls. These types of programs are not only scarce but highly underresourced, and they often depend on the diligent work of unpaid volunteers.

Studies show that a prisoner who actively participates in an education program while incarcerated is 43 percent less likely to become a repeat offender. In the wake of Prop. 47, this statistic becomes even more powerful, and community support for re-entry programming becomes all the more pressing.

Dani Fishman is development director for California Reentry Program, whose primary mission is to help prisoners successfully re-enter society and which serves more than 200 men at San Quentin State Prison each month. She wrote this for this newspaper.